Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Where Laura Isn’t Buried

As easy as it was to find the burial location for Leon Bean
during our San Jose
trip almost two weeks ago, it was not
so easy to find another relative: the mysterious Laura Carrier.

If you remember, Laura Carrier is a new name to me. I found it by accident while reveling in my new-found historic newspaper resources that
opened up the journal on late 1800s northern California cities. While searching for Leon’s sister,
Blanche, I had uncovered a mention of her “cousin” in a funeral announcement.

While I knew that Blanche had married Harry Griswold Watrous, and that their family was now living in San Francisco, I had no idea she had a cousin
with a surname Carrier. Actually, I still
don’t know about any cousins for Leon or his sister Blanche because I know
nothing of either of their parents’ siblings. Each of that older generation, as
far as I can tell, had come to San Francisco
from Maine,
alone. Not until that recent research trip to San Jose
did I even know where in Maine they might have
originated.

There were several logical steps to take to ferret out some
information on this Laura Carrier. First, of course, was to contact the
cemetery listed in the newspaper clipping. This was simple: I had been to Cypress Lawn, the cemetery mentioned in Laura’s announcement, since I had attended the
funeral and burial of a friend’s father there just last fall. Locating the
cemetery information online, I gave them a call in preparation for my upcoming
trip to the San Jose
area, since the cemetery would be a short distance up the peninsula. I could go
there and photograph the headstone myself—if there was a headstone.

Naturally, I also was eager to inquire as to whether Laura
was buried in a family plot. This information might open up several other
research possibilities, and provide clues as to how, exactly, Laura and Blanche
were cousins.

The response to my phone call to Cypress Lawn, however, did
not bode well for me. Transferred to a department which landed me on a voice
mail recording, I left my message with doubts as to whether a long distance
return call would even happen.

It didn’t.

With my trip now only a day or so away, I decided to call
back and see if a second approach would yield better results. With much
apologies and promises, another employee handled my request. While she was certainly
gracious, it turned out I wasn’t to appreciate her answer any more than the
first response.

Laura, it turns out—at least according to the cemetery’s
records—was not buried in Cypress Lawn.

Now what?

I hurried back to my online resources to check whether there
might have been two cemeteries with
the same name. I checked to see when the cemetery I contacted had been
established (the dates matched up).

Granted, after seeing mistakes in almost every type of written
record I’ve ever consulted—from newspapers to death certificates to even
headstones—I was willing to allow that the San Francisco Call had gotten it wrong, and listed the cemetery in error.

My next step could be to try to get a copy of Laura’s death
certificate, but since I’m returning to the Bay Area soon, I don’t exactly have
the luxury of such a wait.

I wondered who might currently have the records for the
mortuary—since, by this time over one hundred years later, it would be unlikely
that the company is still in existence. First, to be sure, I checked to see if
I was searching in the wrong city. The funeral was to take place on Mission
Street, so naturally I had originally assumed that referred to the Mission Street in San Francisco—but since
Laura actually died in Oakland (across the Bay), it occurred to me there might
be a Mission Street in Oakland, too.

A quick check to the 1895 city directories at Ancestry.com
revealed three things:

No
listings for any Carrier family in Oakland

No
listing for a Mission Street
in Oakland

No
listing for a funeral home by the name shown in the newspaper article.

Well, if not in Oakland, then
was it in San Francisco?
After all, that was the home city for the newspaper carrying the announcement.
I had to look at the 1896 directory for San
Francisco, as Ancestry.com didn’t have a volume for
the year of Laura’s death. Of course, there was no need to inspect the city
street listings for a Mission entry—I was
already sure of that. It was reassuring to see entries in the San Francisco directory for a few others with
the Carrier surname, plus another spelling variant. As far as the name of the
business, I was pleased to find my confirmation: the name as the newspaper
reported it, plus the location at that same address, 946 Mission Street.

What was the possibility that that business would still be
in existence today? I took my chances and made the entry in Google™. Keying in “Halsted
and Company” along with the name of the city and the type of occupation, I hit
the right result at the top of the listings. There still is a Halsted funeral home in San Francisco—albeit
merged with some other company names.

Could it possibly still have the records I’m seeking? Though
I’ll give it a try, I doubt it. Keep in mind the one cataclysmic event standing
in between Laura’s passing and our modern times: the 1906 earthquake. According
to the company's website, in the aftermath of the earthquake, the original Mission street location was completely burned.

There is a Cypress Lawn Cemetery in Colma, just a few miles south of San Francisco. I don't know where the train from SF stops near there (Millbrae?), but the mourners could have made a connection. As far as I know, there wasn't train service across the bay to Oakland.

Linda, I noticed that the only cemetery with the name Cypress Lawn happens to be here in northern California, so it's not a matter of coincidental naming of two places. And I checked out the history of Cypress Lawn. It was in existence back then, and their office knows of no other such named cemetery that has since closed. It is certainly a mystery.

Iggy, thanks for that link. That certainly is my Laura's information, but I suspect a Find A Grave volunteer merely gleaned the information from another source and entered it--unless, of course, the staff member of the cemetery gave me some information in error. I guess I really should call them back and double check!

I guess another issue is finding out what Find A Grave's policy is on what documentation volunteers should have before entering a memorial. I have seen other grave entries on Find A Grave based on something other than the actual cemetery records. It's frustrating to see all this verification of the location by everyone other than the actual cemetery office itself!

Oh, Charlie, thanks for looking that up...but that's exactly the problem. The Find A Grave memorial includes exactly the information I found in the San Francisco Call obituary, but when I called the cemetery, they said they have no record of the burial. The memorial doesn't include any photo of the grave, you'll notice, making me wonder if it was just added by virtue of the newspaper article.

About Me

It is my contention that, after a lifetime, one of the greatest needs people have is to be remembered. They want to know: have I made a difference?
I write because I can't keep for myself the gifts others have entrusted to me. Through what I've already been given--though not forgetting those to whom I must pass this along--from family I receive my heritage; through family I leave a legacy. With family I weave a tapestry. These are my strands.